Me and My Community – Caring for Our Community

What is a community?

Communities are made up of people who are connected in some way. They might share common interests and values.

The children came up with a list of people who make up our community:

• families
• friends
• police
• teachers
• shop owners
• doctors
• neighbours
• church

We are connected to these people in lots of different ways and they all play a part in making our community a happy and healthy place to achieve and believe.

We thought about our classroom community and how we’re connected to one another. To show our community and its importance, children passed the string to the next person, whilst offering some words of appreciation, encouragement or support.

The web shows our classroom community. If we all show care and support, it will be strong.

We then dropped the string…

When people stop caring and supporting, the community will start to have problems.

What if we cared MORE not less?

Help at home by discussing this question with your child. You could use these stem sentences to help:

• To support my family community at home, I could…

• To care for my school community, I could…

• To help my local community, I could…

Me and My Community – Our School Vision

As part of our themed week, Me and My Community, we spent some time discussing our school vision.

Our school vision is to be…

…a happy and healthy place to achieve and believe.

We picked out 4 key words from our vision:

• happy

• healthy

• achieve

• believe

We discussed each word, thinking about what ‘happy and healthy’ looks and feels like, and all the ways in which we ‘achieve and believe’

“We can be happy by playing together.”

“We stay healthy by washing our hands.”

“We can achieve by working together.”

“We can believe by cheering each other on.”

Help at home by discussing our school vision with your child. How is our school vision reflected in life outside of school?

Maths – Ordering Numbers

In maths this week, we’ve been learning to order numbers by comparing the number of tens and ones.

Today, we took advantage of the sunny weather and took our maths learning outside. The children were each given a number and had to arrange themselves in order, first in small groups…

…then all together.

This task required much more than just maths knowledge: leadership, teamwork, patience. There were plenty of skills on display!

Help at home by challenging your child to order some 2-digit numbers. Check for understanding by asking them ‘How do you know?’. Ask them to tell you about the number of tens and ones in each number.

Try this fun ordering game.

Philosophy Friday

Philosophy is thinking deeply.

Every Friday, we start our day with some time to wonder and ponder.

We’ve a different question each week – there’s no obvious right/wrong answer and no underlying moral message. All children are given the opportunity to contribute their ideas and give reasons for their thoughts.

This week’s question related to our school vision. Our vision is to be…

…a happy and healthy place to achieve and believe.

Read more about our school vision here.

This question sparked some interesting discussion and debate.

Healthy is more important because if you don’t stay healthy, you won’t feel very well. – Logan

I think healthy because you need to keep healthy so you can come to school and school makes you happy. – Poppy

If you weren’t happy, it could be a world of everyone being sad. – Izabella

I think healthy because you don’t always have to be happy. – Vincent

If you only eat healthy stuff, it might make you a bit angry and you wouldn’t be happy. – Woody

Our oracy focus this half term is:

Help at home by discussing this week’s Philosophy Friday question with your child. Why is our school vision important? What does ‘happy and healthy’ look and feel like at school, at home and in the community?

Maths – Flexible Partitioning

In our ongoing maths quest to master place value, we’ve been partitioning flexibly…

Sounds fancy, but what does it mean?

The children have been learning the component parts of numbers and the value of their digits. For example:

75 is made up of 7 tens and 5 ones.

The value of the 7 is 70.

The value of the 5 is 5.

70 plus 5 is equal to 75

70 + 5 = 75

We’ve been exploring the different ways that numbers can be partitioned. For example:

60 + 15 = 75

54 + 21 = 75

23 + 52 = 75

Help at home by exploring flexible partitioning. Use these stem sentences to help secure understanding of number.

The number is ___.
___ is made up of __ tens and __ ones.
The value of the __ is __.
The value of the __ is __.

How else can the number be partitioned?

RE – Who made the world?

Who made the world?

In RE this half term, we’ll be exploring the question, ‘Who made the world?’.

In our first RE lesson, we learned about the creation story in the Bible.

Christians believe God created the world in seven days.
Each day, he made another part of the world.
He created light to make night and day, and all the land, sky, and oceans. He made humans, animals and all living things.
On the seventh day, God rested.

We then discussed Christianity – What is Christianity?

The children really impressed me with their prior knowledge of Christianity.

We explored the school looking for Christian influence. We were surprised by how many things we found and the ways in which they affect our daily life at school.

• the altar
• a painting of St James
• the cross
• Christian values
• shells
• Bible story
• reflection areas
• candles
• Bible
• cloth
• prayer book
• liturgy

Help at home by discussing the Christian influence we found around school. Here are some questions to spark discussion.

Who is St James?

What do the shells represent?

What are our Christian values? Which (if any) is the most important?

Which of our Christian values have you demonstrated this week?

Recaps

Each week, we’ll start our RE sessions with a recap in which children will recall key facts about 6 religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism):

• symbols
• places of worship
• festivals and celebrations

Help at home by learning some key religious facts. Can your child draw any of the symbols for the 6 religions we’ll learn about?

We’d love to celebrate all the fantastic learning that happens at home – perhaps you could share some drawings of religious symbols with us?

Living and Learning – Manners

Earlier this year, we learnt about the importance of manners.

I respect myself and others.

Manners are words and actions that we can use to help us be kind and respectful to each other. It’s important to be polite and use our manners to show respect and kindness to others and treat everyone fairly. Good manners helps us to get on with others.

We discussed what good manners might look and sound like:

We linked this learning to our British Values, particularly Respect and tolerance. The children demonstrated that they could listen and respond to the views of others and respond politely.

We also discussed protected characteristics and the importance of treating everyone fairly.

We read ‘The Goops’ by Gelett Burgess. Help at home by reading the poem with your child. Can you spot the bad manners in the poem?

The Goops by Gelett Burgess

The Goops they lick their fingers,
And the Goops they lick their knives;
They spill their broth on the tablecloth –
Oh, they lead disgusting lives!

The Goops they talk while eating,
And loud and fast they chew;
And that is why I’m glad that I
Am not a Goop – Are you?

The Goops are gluttonous and rude,
They gug and gumble with their food;
They throw their crumbs upon the floor,
And at dessert they tease for more.

They will not eat their soup and bread
but like to gobble sweets, instead,
And this is why I oft decline,
When I am asked to stay and dine!

Help at home by discussing manners with your child. How can you show good manners at home, at school and in the community? Can your child tell you about the British Values or our Christian Values?

Living and Learning – I follow the school rules

Our first Living and Learning statement of the year was:

I follow the school rules.

We established that rules are instructions that we’re asked to follow. They help to keep us safe and make sure we’re all treated fairly. Rules help to bring order.

We discussed our 3 school rules; how they look and sound in the classroom and around school.

The children gave some great examples of how we might have different rules at home, at school or in the community and there was some interesting discussion about how the world might look different if we didn’t have rules…

Help at home by discussing rules with your child.

• What are our school rules? Is one important than the others?
• What are some of your rules at home and why do you have them?
• What are some of the rules in the community? Are there consequences if we don’t follow them?

Welcome Back, Year 2!

I hope you’ve all had a happy and healthy summer break. The children have returned to school in fantastic form, settling in quickly as we’ve learned new routines and procedures. We’re looking forward to sharing our learning journey with you over the coming weeks but in the meantime, a few reminders.

Reading books

We have a new e-books system; Collins Hub. Parent guidance should have been emailed to you and children’s log-ins will be sent home today (09.09.24). Books have been assigned but we are aware of some teething problems as we learn the new platform. Please let me know if you’re experiencing any issues.

Reading records

Please return reading records to school by Wednesday. Make a note of what has been read and any areas you have focused on. This is a great way for us all to keep up to date and an often overlooked way of staying in regular contact! If you have any questions about this, please be in touch.

Library books

Our library day is Friday. Please return library books to school by Wednesday, ready to return to the library in exchange for a new one.

NumBots

Please continue to use NumBots. It’s a really valuable resource and a fantastic way of keeping home learning fun. If you need any technical support, please be in touch and I’ll try my best to help.

PE days

Our PE days are Tuesday and Friday. Uniform compliance has been fantastic to start the year – let’s keep it up!

Water bottles

Please make sure your child comes to school with a clean, labelled water bottle every day. Water bottles must go home every day.

If you need any additional support, you can email me on ajnash@spherefederation.org and I’ll get back to you within an appropriate timeframe.

Our new sensory space; The Den

Over the summer, Mrs Freeman has been busy creating a sensory themed room in school.

The Den is a safe space which aims to provide any child with the individualised sensory input they need to self-regulate so they can be better prepared for learning and interacting with others.

The Den offers a safe space for relaxation, exploration, independence, and social sessions. The resources in The Den can be used to stimulate, soothe, entertain and distract, depending on the child’s requirements.

We would like to say thank you to the school PTA for the contributions towards resources for this room.

We hope users of The Den benefit from the stimulating visual and tactile activities.